Trying to add Canon MX850 printer wirelessly to Macbook pro

The .dmg file will contain an installer for the Canon drivers. When you open the .dmg and run the installer, the Canon drivers will be copied to Mac HD > Library > Printers > Canon > BJPrinter.

However, knowing this location will not help when adding a printer queue. If you have a situation where you are trying to locate these drivers, such as via the 'Select a driver' section of the 'Print Using' menu, then navigating to the BJPrinter folder will not provide you with any file to select. This is due to the way in which the Canon driver for your MX has been written.

You mentioned in your subject that you are adding the printer wirelessly. But checking the Canon Aus web site shows this model does not have support for wireless, only Ethernet and USB. So can you reply how you currently have the printer connected to your wireless network.

Pahu

You need to tell me more about your home network, such as how many computers you have (PC & Mac), how they connect to your network (wireless or wired), what brand of router you have and how it connects all devices together and how you currently have the printer connected.

I could assume you have it connected via USB to some device and this is sharing it to the other computers, but it would be better if you can describe your setup so I don't have to assume.

Okay. Thanks for the info.

With it connected via USB to the iMac, you are going to have some problems when this Mac is running Windows and the MBP is running OS X. This will be due to limitation with the Canon driver, in that it cannot be used when you have the printer connected to a Windows share. For these types of connections, you need to rely on the Gutenprint drivers, a version of which is included with OS X, and later versions are available from Sourceforge (these are the drivers you already found via the Print Using menu). The problem you will have with the Gutenprint drivers is finding a version that supports your model of printer. The current versions do not offer support for your model, so you would have to find a compatible model from those included with the driver set, which can take a long time and use a lot of paper.

I suggest your best option is to use the Ethernet port of the MX850. With a bit of luck your wireless router will have a spare Ethernet port. You could connect the MX to this port and assign an IP address to the printer. The benefit of doing this is that it won't matter what OS you are running on any machine, you will be able to use the Canon made MX driver. The other benefit is that you will not have to ensure the iMac is on so that you can print from the other computers.

HTH

Pahu

Did you add the printer by clicking on Other Printers and using the Canon Network Utility? It will not add properly unless you do. Also, before you do this, you need to set up the printer for network printing while it is connected by USB.